Great Powers Compete to Dominate the World, Op-ed

This article will be the last extrapolation of the most important international events that took place in 2021 and still cast a shadow over the global system and have multiple and overlapping dimensions that enable an understanding of what happened and what will happen in a future, marked by uncertainty.

-The US Senate, in a rare moment of understanding between Democrats and Republicans, passed a bill to allocate significant investments in advanced technology.

The plan allocates more than $170 billion for research and development goals… It also allocates $120 billion to the "National Science Foundation", in funding for scientific research in various key fields, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI). It also allocates $1.5 billion to develop the fifth-generation (5G) telecommunications network.

Whoever wins the race for future technologies such as artificial intelligence “Will lead the global economy.” In our Arab countries, we must quickly raise the issues of specializations and future jobs, in light of the rapid and unprecedented transformations brought about by the 4th Industrial Revolution and Artificial Intelligence (AL) technology, which in turn raises many questions about the future of the education system and its relationship to future jobs, especially amid the recent studies which expect robots, and smart devices to replace humans in many areas of life and jobs, in the coming years.

-In 2021, Russia has mobilized more than 94,000 soldiers near the Ukrainian border and may be preparing for a large-scale military attack... The Ukrainians who live near the border with Russia fear that military clashes and bombing scenario, that occurred years ago with the Russian separatists, will be repeated.

This conflict has destroyed the Ukrainian industrial city of Avdiivka... Ukraine and its NATO allies are highly alerted of Russian troop movements near the Ukrainian border and raising fears that the conflict would turn into open war.

Ukraine is an impoverished country in Eastern Europe that has been torn apart since 2014 by a war between Kyiv and pro-Russian separatists in the east. Kyiv accuses Russia of supporting the separatists. The conflict claimed the lives of more than 13,000 people.

The equation of this problem is simple: Russia says that it does not want any military confrontation with Ukraine in exchange for NATO abstaining from being present on its borders; In the sense that it calls for "security guarantees" and assurances that NATO will not continue to expand to the east, especially with Ukraine applying to join the alliance. As for Kyiv, it refuses to give up its bid to join NATO, a matter for which it has applied since 2008 and has not yet been decided upon.

-A study recently published by the "Foreign Policy" magazine on the competition between the United States (US) and China for world domination stated that Beijing's policy based on economic relations with countries can continue for a longer period than Washington's policies based on military alliances.

What is obvious through extrapolating the most important characteristics of the major actors in the world system, is that military alliances and economic relations are two factors of a single equilibrium equation, and they will become the most important determinants of the coming period that will normalize relations in the new world order.

Compare with me: The deals Russia has signed with India threaten the core of US strategy in the face of Russia and China's expansion in the Middle East and beyond. Moscow and New Delhi concluded a package of defense and economic agreements, including a deal, under which the Russian company "Rosneft" will supply about 15 million barrels of crude oil to India in 2022; India will account for the largest share of the growth in energy demand over the next two decades. Moreover, the Russian president's visit to India also contradicts US expectations about the success of its anti-China and Russia strategy.

What we can conclude, from this example, is that neither US, China, nor Russia can lead the world system without military and economic alliances at the same time, contrary to what was stated in the ‘Foreign Policy’ report.

-China continues to build new Silk Roads; over the years, this huge investment program in infrastructure has become the major policy of the state... The Chinese president has succeeded in convincing many countries of the world on the modern version of this economic and trade corridor.

The Chinese giant is changing the global economic map at all levels, from global governance to trade rules through respect for the environment and investment operations, by injecting heavy investments all over the world...